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Windows 7: How happy are early adopters?

Time: 07:42 EST/12:42 GMT | News Source: PC Advisor | Posted By: Kenneth van Surksum

Microsoft's latest OS is barely even two months olds, yet early adopters have given Windows 7 the thumbs up. We look at why they're happy and any issues they've got.

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#1 By 1896 (68.153.171.248) at 12/12/2009 10:58:12 AM

W7 is an extremely good OS; it is stable, reliable and fast.
The only issue I have with it and I had with Vista too is the "Search" function: I am not so il love with it but it is just a personal incompatibility, not sure if just a visual one or the way I approach it but I liked more the one in XP.

Said that I strongly believe that MS needs to give a big overhaul to the next OS UI; "Copenhagen" concept could be a good base although I personally would prefer something more radical like the MS 2019 Vision.

#2 By 13997 (71.193.149.254) at 12/12/2009 2:24:37 PM

#1

The Search in Win7 is significantly different than Vista. The developers talked openly during beta that they wanted to make sure it reflected at LEAST the power you got with the RAW search in XP.

Here are a few tricks that help get people that come from the XP thinking type of 'search'.

1) The Search Box on the Start Menu now works like the Run Dialog Box, with the added benefit of being a predictive search tool as well. So it does the search stuff, but if you enter c:\program files (it will start returning results from the File System even from non-indexed locations as it notices you are referencing a specific place)

2) If you can't get search to return a result, remember it relies on the 'Folder Settings', so if you have items that are hidden or system files and the folder setting have them hidden search will not return them.

3) If you want a 'root/administrator' level search, simply open the Explorer Window as an Administrator. Hold Shift, and Right click on the Windows Explorer icon on the Taskbar, a new option appears "Run as Administrator" - This occurs for all applications; however, it is powerful for Explorer as you can do Administrator level actions without a series of UAC prompts, as you only have to approve the UAC when it launches.

-Running Explorer as administrator will allow you to search locations that normal search doesn't allow you. For example, system areas of the File System that are UAC restricted, are now viewable easily and fully searchable. So you could do a c:\ search and see into folder that normal search won't let you into because it needs UAC to get there.

4) Go look up the 'advanced' search tips for Vista and Win7, it has almost the eqivalent of full SQL power of returning results from indexed and even non-indexed locations. And with nested searches and other tricks, you can do some impressive stuff.

There are times I miss the 'Find' from Win95,Win98, but in reality it is just me, as I can get the same features from Win7 if I approach it like Win7 expects instead of an uber geek methods I am use to.

In Win7 the search and especially the start menu search does so much easily that for non-geek users it really is a nice feature. I also enjoy looking up some weird address I typed in a letter or converstaion 15 years ago and out of over 1.5 million documents and emails with a couple of keystokes.

PS If you have TIFF scans, In the Window Add/Remove Features, turn on the OCR for TIFF, so that Windows Search will even pick up words out of scanned documents.

(Also remember Win7 can search voice notes for words in OneNote, Images in documents for words, Ink from documents, and some other cool things other search technologies just don't do.)

This post was edited by thenetavenger on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 14:35.

#3 By 1896 (68.153.171.248) at 12/12/2009 6:04:28 PM

#2: Thanks for the advices; as you stated though my "issue" is not related to a lack of functionalities in W7 but just my approach to them. Older you become harder is to change established habits.....

#4 By 79018 (74.70.9.133) at 12/13/2009 8:49:32 PM

I am currently using Win7 64bit, and only one issue, not really related to the OS. I currently use IE8 64bit and Adobe hasn't done a flash plug-in for it. I also use Chrome so it isn't a problem.
Since Win7 upgrade I added a 3rd HD, new Display card with HDMI and an E-sata card. I have 2 Photo-inkjets and an older HP Laserjet, my point they all work with Win7 64bit. My system hasn't slowed down withe added hardware.
XP seems like a long time ago.

#5 By 2960 (68.100.201.101) at 12/14/2009 9:48:13 AM

With the exception of the new Start Menu, which I personally think is a horrific example of poor User Interface Design, and the delay when accessing secondary drives, I'm quite happy with it.

#6 By 230538 (74.219.160.9) at 12/14/2009 10:01:38 AM

I don't really have any complaints about. I'm quite happy running Win7 x64.

The one issue I have is that when you open windows explorer and you're looking through CD/DVD's.. If you have windows explorer on your DVD drive and you remove the cd/dvd from the drive, windows explorer closes too.. XP and I think Vista would move the "attention" the the items below your DVD drive, but keep windows explorer open..

#7 By 16797 (99.236.87.50) at 12/14/2009 11:31:23 AM

Am I the only one staying with Vista (for now)?

Don't know... I simply can't see that many improvements over Vista + SP2. Maybe I'm just too lazy to switch for real..

One really stupid thing still present in Win 7 is that if I set wallpaper to a solid color, login time gets to around 20 seconds. Crazy. Set wallpaper to any image and it's back to normal...

#8 By 432 (209.167.107.58) at 12/14/2009 2:32:28 PM

We are testing Win7 for our corporate deployment (we skipped Vista). I am having some major issues with our laptops.

When you are not connected to the cororate network (ie: working off site) W7 takes forever to login, open any file dialog boxes, browse local folders/drives or do anything that causes file system access.

I am not using "synchronized" or "Offline"" files due to corporate security policies, nor have I tested it.

Does anyone have any idea what causes these issue when disconnected from the network? I have done some intense googling to no avail.

However working on W7 when connected to the network is like a breath of fresh air compared to Vista. But I still see major file copy slow downs compared to WinXP going to/from Network shares and to/from USB flash drives.

Anyone have any thoughts on any of these issues?

Thanks

#9 By 13997 (71.193.149.254) at 12/14/2009 3:40:25 PM

#8

I am a fan of Offline files, and I say this knowing that many corporate policies can conflict with the nature of Offline files, and that is why you need strong group and user implemented policies.

You need to make the basic 'User' areas that are network central available Offline, so that the profile and the basic Desktop for example can be accessed when away from the office.

You can restrict users from putting 'company' documents on their desktop, etc as your company policies are defined. And this is where Offline Files is better than simply allowing users to copy documents to their desktop to take home, as companies choose to do, not realizing that Offlien files gives the company more control over access to the network documents as it can control what is made available, what is copied, how it is locally secured and how long the period of Offline access (if any) exists to the user when away from the network.

You can also monitor what people are 'checking out' via Offline files and control this better than letting users have unfettered copy rights to documents and put them on their laptop or desktop and remove from the company network location.

Next look into the VPN remote replacement technologies, as you can do a lot more than just allow access to the network via VPN now and keeping things 'avalable' and secure are going to be important when they are away from the network/office.

The beauty of the whole Active Directory and Windows client/server relationships and policies is that you can make them do virtually anything and control and monitor what they do with simple flips of policy switches.

Microsoft worked hard to put in place solid business IT tools in Windows and Windows Server for years and years now, and I can assure you that whatever you decide you need, you can get there.

Skip Googling, and start with the Microsoft Forums and Technet Forums if you have access. People there WILL know what they are doing more than not, and will be able to answer very specific questions on what you are doing and how to do it.

Also, you need to take some time to bring up your education a bit on Windows, specifically the changes in Vista that are also in Win7 and the new thinking of server/client and policy relations with both Vista and Win7. If you approach the solution like it is Win9X and NT4 or even XP and Win2K3 you will be losing out on a lot of functionality or recreating functionality that is now built in.

Pick up some books, specifically on Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2, and get a handle for why and how it works now, and things that you had to script or handle yourself in the past is either not necessary or the OS and Server just handles without blinking an eye.

Also try to grab a new perspective on what is happening so you can plan out the computer level domain policies and also the end user policies that might need to be revised.

Good luck...

PS The file copying could be many things, and again this is where you need to be in a MS Forum asking rather than here. It can depend on the servers or the peer setups and if they are updated to use the newer parts of the protocol - especially true if your servers are SAMBA or other generics that don't fully implement the network protocols and authentication fully as prior version of Windows didn't want/require it.

Anyway, hit the forums, and when you find the issue, you will get the speed you are use to with XP back, I do promise you. In fact, you will find network congestion and overall performance to be much smoother with Win7 as you move fully to it because of its built in caching and network efficiency differences over XP.

This post was edited by thenetavenger on Monday, December 14, 2009 at 15:46.

#10 By 20505 (216.102.144.11) at 12/14/2009 6:23:41 PM

gonzo,

You're brilliant! I just made a plain blue colored .gif wallpaper in Photoshop and set it as my destop background. Now Win7 boots about 20 seconds faster than with "solid color blue" set in desktop properties.

Thanks.

#11 By 432 (209.167.107.58) at 12/15/2009 11:00:14 AM

#9
Thank you for taking the time to respond and I appreciate your suggesstions. However I can assure you the policies we have in place regarding offline are simply not up fro discussion, people will not syncing files anytime soon where I work. Not my policy, simply one I must adhere too.

To continue, I don't see how this addresses my issues. Regardless of if I sync files are not, it should not slow the computer to a crawl simply because I am working offline.

I will hit the forums today and see if I can find some answers, I will comment back just for anyone who may hit this comment with the same question.

Thanks again for your comments....appreciate the round table feel on AW.

This post was edited by SidX on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 11:01.

#12 By 23275 (68.117.163.128) at 12/16/2009 9:58:52 AM

#11, If you're running a WS08 R2 environment in native mode on the back end, you'd be golden, but that is not likely, or even practical.

More probably, you're running a mixed mode of some kind. If that is true, then consider disabling RDC on the Windows 7 / Vista clients (selecting a few on different network segments as a test). RDC, or remote differential compression, along with native frame scaling, are pretty cool, but not all older backend systems will work well with the the new clients. Also, disable any third party interface acceleration on the test clients. (RDC is among default features - click the link in programs and features - upper left for turn windows features on or off).

Also, explicitly enable ECN support in Windows 7/Vista, do this: Open a command console as an administrator and enter the following command and restart the computer, netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled (again, do this on test systems and check for efficacy). Successful application will reflect a simple "Ok." in the console. (restart the machine and test).

Please also check a couple of things that so many admins discount. Understand your routers and switches and what they support and how they are set up. Many forget what role they play and something as simple as interfacing a managed switch set to a default of "Auto" when it should match upstream and or downstream ports on adjacent equipment can tank a network running new clients. Coordinate your efforts with those that manage this equipment and if it is yourself, explore what options you have and test for what is optimal. I've seen companies throw a lot of money at problems only to see them make matters worse, because a simple setting was discounted.

#13 By 4240821 (213.139.195.162) at 10/27/2023 8:59:52 AM